Headhunter succeeds due to her persistence
Helen Wu says the key to building her Beijing real estate recruitment firm into a success is due mainly to her persistence and patience
Fifteen years ago, Helen Wu Hongmei moved to Beijing from her hometown in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang. Like millions of migrant people pursuing their dreams in the capital city, Wu's career path was not certain. She tried her hand at being a translator, then decided to give human resources a go. Now 40, she has finally found what she was looking for: playing matchmaker to companies and would-be employees. She tells Jane Cai about how her small headhunting service has survived tough economic times to become increasingly profitable, and she offers advice to both sides in the job-recruitment process.
Before I set up Sunshine Immensity HR Consultants in 2008, I was an HR manager with Beijing Uni-Construction Group, the largest construction contractor and real estate developer owned by the Beijing municipal government. The job was intense, and I was kept busy dealing with various headhunting agents that helped with hiring for the group and its more than 30 units. However, co-operating with these agencies did not make hiring any smoother. In many instances, quite a few headhunters didn't understand what kind of people we were looking for, either because they knew little about property development, or because they did not bother to think thoroughly about our demands.
Communicating with the agencies was time-consuming, and the effort was sometimes fruitless. It made me think - there is a big demand for professional headhunters! There are thousands of headhunting agencies in Beijing. Apart from foreign headhunters that mainly serve multinationals, the market is full of small and medium-sized hunters that cater to private companies and government-owned corporations. The appetite for human resources is huge in the private sector because of aggressive expansion and a high turnover rate for personnel. However, demands are not being met.
I once told a friend in [Uni-Construction Group's] headhunting unit that a good headhunter should be responsible, persistent and possess the knowledge required in the specific area where he works. Maybe the words struck a chord with my friend, who was the head of the service. He encouraged me to join them, saying I had the right personality. I laughed. But the HR veteran said that persistency and a sense of responsibility were the most important characteristics of a good headhunter.